I'm a bit disappointed that the best television seems to be coming from the premium networks, specifically HBO and Showtime.

What's the deal with that, can't the networks, or even the cable networks get it figured out? We have to resort to not only paying for cable, but premium cable channels at that in order to get some sort of decent television, ick!

But enough kvetching (great website, sad it's gone) on to the good. So this weekend marked the season premiere for Six Feet Under and the series premieres of Carnivale and K Street on HBO. As well as a new episode of Freshmen Diaries on Showtime (a show I had previously not seen).

I'll start with the earliest - Carnivale - HBO's much hyped new series about a group of carnies in the 30's. Dark, dirty, and a bit twisted.... I was less than impressed. The show had its dark moments, but just kept repeating the same one over and over again, there wasn't enough character development to get me hooked enough to really want to tune again next week to see what else happens, but I'll probably give it another shot before I write it off.

K Street now this show I hadn't even heard of until last week when they accidentally ran a promo for it. Sounds interesting a different look at how laws are made in this country, etc. etc. So I tuned in - to this reality-esque television show, it was weird and quite frankly boring.

The highlight of the evening was the episode of Freshmen Diaries. If you were fortunate to have seen any of the extremely short lived "American High" when it ran on Fox (for about 2 weeks) and then randomly on public television (at least in Iowa) then you know the format of this show. It isn't that different than the Real World except it is centered on a real-real environment in this case college - the freshmen year. It was a riot. I almost fell on the floor laughing - mostly at the expense of these poor souls. But then again it wouldn't have been nearly as funny with out some sort of personal experience to relate it too.

There was one scene where a guy was drinking in his dorm room with his one friend (who happens to be a girl), as the night progresses his ability to control his lusty urges for his friend diminishes, and he makes a complete ass of himself by trying to mack on her when she doesn't want to. There's another scene where one guy freaks out on his boyfriend for more or less no reason (kinda reminds me of someone I used to know, but he's too "Catholic" to admit he's gay) it's good stuff, less contrived than the Real World.

Ahh freshman year in college. One of those situations where now that you look back at you are really really glad it's over, and that you will never have to live through it again, although somehow it just didn't seem that bad at the time (like middle school or high school) yeah you know what I mean.